Art through Gaming

Priya bought up the very interesting point about videogames as art and I would like to attempt to scrutinise this idea a little further. In the last few years there has been an increasing awareness and interest in what can be known as videogame art. For example the Smithsonian American Art Museum is currently preparing the exhibit, The Art of Videogames, (March 16 – September 30 2012) which they deem to be the first major presentation to explore the history of videogames as an artistic medium. The condition of the videogame and videogame art are, however, so severely similar that it is often difficult to establish where the videogame stops and the art begins. This distinction, I believe, is likely to begin somewhere within the conceptual premise underlying most contemporary art we encounter today. That is, within the arts the videogame may have a far greater prospect of managing issues not limited to a political, cultural, philosophical or propagandist disposition.

For example in 2010 self-described videogame artist Feng Mengo showcased Long March: Restart (2008) at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, a work of art presented by means of a fully functioning traditional side-scrolling videogame. Playing as a Red Army hero one must make their way through a pixelated take on Beijing and its mass of enemies. Rather than pertaining primarily to any in-game goals or personal player experiences, the game was created as a reflection on communist China’s political situation as well as covering the current state of new media and art today. Though it may look and play like a videogame, the artwork acknowledges the potential to communicate ideas within the actual world outside of the videogame itself.

http://momaps1.org/exhibitions/view/320

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IzrzOqwPNI

           Rather than really ‘playing’ the art videogame, one is required to actively engage with the work and its conceptual proposal, an ‘art through gaming.’ The difference between the videogame and its artistic counterpart may, however, have much to do with the gamer and his/her reception of the text, while the intention of the author and the context within which it is encountered may also contribute much of this response. For instance the same game within the lounge or the art gallery may receive fairly different readings. However, what has become available in the art realm is the ability to re-evaluate and redefine the previously limited system of gaming and to extend the possibilities of the videogame practice thereafter.